Later today, the 2018 FIFA World Cup will officially begin with host country Russia squaring off against Saudi Arabia. Millions around the globe will watch the highly anticipated event, which is the biggest tournament in all of – at least from a U.S. perspective – the “other” football aka. soccer. The two sports sharing the same name in most parts of the world is no coincidence considering the history of the American football.
Despite the historical ties between the two sports, however, few men have played them both – at least professionally. In fact, there are only six men who played both professional soccer and pro football (for the sake of the argument, professional football is defined as NFL football; there were other more or less professional leagues in the past but none of them had any lasting staying power).